


A Caper Interrupted

by Pandora (paperclipbutterfly)



Category: Carmen Sandiego (Cartoon 2019)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Carmen saves the day!, Gen, Just needed to get this finished so I could watch season 2, Kinda?, Minor Original Character(s), One Shot, Really just an excuse to have Carmen get squicked by a hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 01:24:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20899352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperclipbutterfly/pseuds/Pandora
Summary: On the streets of Rio, a predator is on the prowl. Carmen sets herself between them and their prey... but who is the hunted and who is the hunter?





	A Caper Interrupted

**Author's Note:**

> A little one shot I started after finishing season 1 and got the urge to finish when I heard season 2 was coming out. Let's address the elephant in the room up front: yes, it's set in Rio. Yes, I realize that's the location of the first episode of season 2. I chose the city months ago, and I'm just not changing it at this point.
> 
> I do hope you enjoy it. ^_^

There were plenty of things in this world that were up for grabs. Money (obviously), jewelry, fine china, silver, gold. Plenty of perfectly valuable, perfectly shiny things that would sate any thief’s appetite.

There were still some things, though, that even the world’s greatest thief would never dare to take. She’d learned over time, for example, never to take anything for granted. Never take candy from a baby. Never steal a heart.

Never take a life.

These were things that Carmen Sandiego would never take. So, it always came as a jarring surprise when she saw how willing others were to take such things.

Rio de Janiero. _Carnival_. A celebration of epic proportions. A time when many more things than beads and feathers would be given and taken and won and lost. This event drew a huge number of tourists to Brazil every year for the week-long revelries. Authorities were overwhelmed, with police resources stretched especially thin. It was a perfect time for a perfect crime.

And also less perfect ones.

“Player, talk to me. How’re we doing?”

Carmen spoke low, her binoculars out and at the moment aimed in the direction of the V.I.L.E. stronghold half a mile away. A position atop one of the buildings on this particularly quiet street gave her an unobstructed view of her target, completely opposite from the lights and the music of the festival still going strong into the late hours of the night.

<Right on track, Red, as usual,> came his familiar voice in her ear, playful and smug through the comm. <Even a bit ahead of schedule. You could snag a quick bite of carnival fare if you wanted.>

Her stomach gave a little rumble as the suggestion was accompanied by the smell of something delicious and deep-fried wafting by on the breeze. She glanced at the bright colors of revelry behind her and quirked a little half smile.

“Zack would whine so hard…”

<Oh, for sure.> She could practically hear the impish grin as he added, <I could send excruciatingly high def photos ahead of you by accident.>

She was about to take him up on the light snack and harmless shenanigans to go with it when light, hurried footsteps below made Carmen take a step back from the ledge into the shadows of the roof peaks. A quick glance at the source turned her high alert back down a few notches. The girl coming down the avenue was a little mousey thing, thin and twitchy, with gnarled brown curls and eyes that kept darting from the phone in her hands to her surroundings and back again.

_Lost_. It was easy to forget that not everyone had Player on their side, looking out for them. When was the last time she was ever truly lost, didn’t know where she was or where she was headed?

A furtive shadow now from the corner of her eye, a broad, brawny physique and practiced, quiet movements. Steps that were silent as he drew up behind her, closing the gap between them with what could only be one goal in mind.

“_Hey, sweetness, you’re heading in the wrong direction_,” came the slick voice in Portuguese from behind what Carmen imagined was a predator’s grin. “_Party’s back thataway._”

The prey squeaked and startled, nearly dropping her phone. She turned, heels inching back and away from the hunter before her. “I’m… I’m not…”

_Aaaand a tourist to boot. Swell._ This girl was all sorts of out of place.

“_Ah, come on now, what’s that face for?_” Another advance forward for him, another step backward for her. “_Lemme help you out… bet I could show you the right way to some fun, huh?_”

Perhaps not a V.I.L.E. henchman, but at the same time Carmen thought that the word ‘vile’ suited this character quite well. He swiped a grasping hand out which was only narrowly avoided, and that was that.

“How much extra time do I have, exactly?” she asked, voice barely a murmur as she stepped up to the ledge and tucked her binoculars away.

<Plenty enough for some take out.>

“Hmm… enough to take out some _trash_, then.”

<Uhhh… wait, what?>

“Sorry, Player.” Carmen pulled her hat lower on her head and then tumbled forward off the roof. “I’m gonna have to ask you to hold for a minute.”

Her midair somersault ended in a precision landing on the sidewalk between the two pedestrians, red trench coat billowing just a touch dramatically. Both were surprised, though the man’s expression cycled to irritation rather abruptly.

“_Boa noite,_” she said to him, and threw her arm out in front of the mousey girl behind her. “_Walk away now while you still have use of your legs. This will be your only warning._”

His eyes flashed dangerously, then he curled his lips into a smile. He swept a bow, put his hands behind his back, and turned to walk off.

Carmen didn’t usually take her eyes off a potential assailant—even a retreating one—but the little high-pitched gasp of a breath behind her caught her attention. She turned around to give the girl a kind smile.

“Are you all right?” she asked, and took a step closer. “Can I call someone to come help y—?”

Her brown eyes grew wide and she pointed over Carmen’s shoulder. “Watch out!”

The alert wasn’t necessary; Carmen heard the return approach of his footsteps and was already battle ready by the time those two words had been uttered. The knife thrust harmlessly past her on her right, and she continued to spin away as she brought her fist around to sock him in the kidney. He winced hard, and tried to slice with the knife again.

Carmen avoided the blade and took his arm between her hands. She started to push him down toward the sidewalk, twisting his arm and elbow back in an armlock. The knife to the cement as his grip slackened. His knee hit the pavement and she was about to issue an additional ultimatum when the grip she had was lost as he forced his shoulder down and away from her. He twisted his arm loose and before she could back up a brick-sized fist came around—_WHAM!—_into her stomach. Her breath was sucked away, and she staggered as her hat slipped off her head.

<Red, what’s happening?> Player’s tense voice hissed in her ear as she gasped air back into her lungs. <Carmen? Carmen!>

New blows came around, which Carmen had the wherewithal and finely tuned muscle memory to block, but her balance had become compromised. Her mind kicked into situational overdrive. Where was the girl? Did she run? Hide? If the girl had already gotten away, then there was no reason to keep fighting… she still had a job to do tonight, after all, and very soon. She could retreat with Player’s help, but then…

“ARGH!”

The blows stopped. The man stumbled to the side until he hit the wall of a building, clutching at his eyes. The mousey girl stood poised with fire in her eyes, chest heaving from rough breaths, and a can of pepper spray in her hands. With tears streaming down his face and a rather pitiful whimpering noise falling from his mouth, he tottered away down the avenue with his arm against the wall to try and guide his steps. He toppled a trash can at the end of the block, turned the corner, and was finally gone.

<Carmen!>

Player’s harsh exclamation set off a screech of feedback and she rubbed her ear from the slight ringing it caused. “Yeah, I’m here,” she murmured, stooping down to retrieve her hat from the sidewalk.

<Are you alright?>

“Fine.” Carmen patted the dirt off and set it back on her head as she turned to the still shaken girl. “Need just one more minute.”

She took a slow step forward, palms turned out and shoulders relaxed, shrinking herself down to look as non-threatening as possible.

“Can I call the police for you?” she asked. “Or a ride?”

Her head shook furiously, brown curls whipping about her tiny face. “No, please, I’m… my hotel is just there, I think, I’m… I just got turned around, and I… and…”

Then all of a sudden there were arms around Carmen’s shoulders in a trembling and graceless, but nonetheless wholehearted, embrace. She stiffened within the gawky hold at first, breath catching at the back of her throat; after all, the most recent hug she had been on the receiving end of cracked three of her ribs and nearly crushed her spine. It was some seconds before the queasy sensation in the pit of her stomach ebbed, and she returned the hug gently.

The girl released her quickly and took a step back, cheeks flushed and bashful face turned down to the pavement.

Carmen smiled. “You sure you’ll be alright, Miss—?”

“Dormaus,” came the soft, pitched reply. “Minna Dormaus.”

“You are alright, then? You’re sure?”

“Yeah, I am now.” She turned her eyes up to Carmen then with a tiny smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Carmen stepped past her toward the nearby building and gave a wave over her shoulder. “Goodnight, Minna.”

She leapt easily up at the fire escape and caught it with both hands, then pulled herself up to the rungs to the landing. Up the stairs two at a time, back to the roof and away out of sight from the street below.

“Alright, Player, I’m back,” she said as she took off at an easy lope along the rooftops.

He gave a grumpy huff in her ear. <Raincheck on the grub, I take it?>

“I’d say so. Sorry to disappoint.”

<Just hope you’re not hungry, is all.>

_Strangely enough,_ she thought, heart brimming as she trained her eyes in the direction of the caper waiting for her at the building in the distance, _not anymore._

*****

Minna Dormaus watched the Lady in Red disappear into the night. There was no mistaking it, no doubt in her mind whatsoever that she’d been in the presence of the Scarlet Outlaw herself. Not the sort of ‘criminal’ that she’d been looking to lure in tonight. She’d gone and cast her bait out too far, and reeled in a much bigger fish than she wanted.

Her lips curled into a vicious expression like a snarl. Body language was spot on, ideal location chosen, but how could she possibly account for someone who was essentially considered a ghost? That scoundrel didn’t know how lucky he was at her appearance. He’d have lost so much more than the wallet she held in her hands if it weren’t for Carmen Sandiego.

No use brooding. The master thief played her own game by her own rules, and Minna had no objection to those in the least. Maybe they’d meet again one day, sit down over coffee and exchange notes on unorthodox approaches to improving a world tipping daily toward ruin. One day, maybe.

Minna dug the bills out from the leather fold, and then tossed it into the gutter. There would be no trophies for her collection tonight, perhaps, but there were still plenty of unworthy lives on this planet for her to claim. There would be another, on another day, in another dirty city. Another back alley, another bad neighborhood, another predator would emerge from the shadows not knowing that they were the ones being hunted. Let them mistake her for prey. If the meek were to inherit the Earth, someone needed to clear the garbage out of their way. The gentle deserved all the world, and she would take it back for them… one life at a time.

**Author's Note:**

> Glad to get that out of my system. :D Off to binge season 2! Thanks for reading!


End file.
